The botched airstrikes reflect the difficulty the imperiled government has had battling for survival on multiple fronts since a popular uprising against the longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, began six months ago. Armed tribesmen are fighting government forces in a number of areas around the country, and Islamist militants, some allied with Al Qaeda, have overrun entire towns in the restive south.

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) — Dozens of civilians may have been killed by Yemeni forces since May while fighting an armed Islamist group in Abyan province, the activist group Human Rights Watch said in a report released Saturday. But a spokesman for Yemen’s ruling party disputed the findings.

“As Yemeni government forces battle armed militants in Abyan, civilians are paying the price,” Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in the report. “Both sides need to be doing much more to protect civilians from harm, and the government should be investigating possible laws-of-war violations by its forces in Abyan.”

SANAA, Yemen — Military and hospital officials say a Yemeni air force jet mistakenly bombed a bus in a southern city controlled by Islamic militants and suspected al-Qaida members, killing four and wounding 12 passengers. (more…)

(Reuters) – A team of United Nations human rights investigators will travel to Yemen next week to assess the situation after months of unrest, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday.

“The U.N. human rights office is due to deploy a three-member delegation to Yemen on Monday for a 10-day mission to assess the human rights situation in the country in light of recent events,” spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a news briefing.